Gerry Mulligan Quotes

I listened to classical music. I listened to jazz. I listened to everything. And I started becoming interested in the sounds of jazz. And I went to a concert of Jazz at the Philharmonic when we lived in Omaha, Nebraska, and I saw Charlie Parker play and Billie Holiday sing and Lester Young play, and that did it. I said, 'That's what I want to do.'

As long as there are people trying to play music in a sincere way, there will be some jazz.

When I was 12, I began listening to John Coltrane and I developed a love for jazz, which I still have more and more each year.

I grew up with all these old jazz guys in the '70s in L.A., and they grew up idolizing Charlie Parker, Charles Mingus, Lester Young - all of these incredible musicians.

I've been around jazz and jazz musicians most of my life.

I didn't know what the hell Charlie Parker was playing... I just liked the way he played.

As a very small girl, I listened to Charlie Parker and loved him and Max Roach and people like that.

Part of what I like to do with Brainfeeder is to get the younger kids hearing jazz, because they don't know where to go to really hear it. Brainfeeder gives me a platform to put out people like Kamasi Washington or Austin Peralta.

Charlie Parker is my greatest inspiration as a saxophone player - anything that involves him entails a large amount of respect.

In those days before hearing Charlie Parker and Dizzy, and before learning of the so-called bebop era--by the way, I have some thoughts about that word, "bebop"--my first jazz hero ever, jazz improvisor hero, was Lester Young. I was a big "Lester Young-oholic," and all of my buddies were Lester Young-oholics. We'd get together and dissect, analyze, discuss, and listen to Lester Young's solos for hours and hours and hours. He was our god.

If you don't already know about jazz music, how would you be exposed? How would get an opportunity to find out if it spoke to you? If you get exposed to it enough, you might find a taste for it.

I got my love of jazz from my stepfather, who was a jazz musician.

Jazz fans love Miles and I love him for a myriad of reasons, but the overviews are always too simplistic.

I was a jazz major in high school, in an all-jazz band. No matter what I do, it features my musical influences.

When I found the music of Monk I finally found music that fit that horn. Every one of his tunes fit it perfectly.

At a certain point, I became a kind of musician that has tunnel vision about jazz. I only listened to jazz and classical music.

Growing up, I was very much interested in jazz music.

As a kid, I used to go see all the jazz players, Oscar Peterson, Stan Kenton, Dave Brubeck, Dizzy Gillespe.

Jazz is a constant theme in my life. My father is a jazz pianist, and from an early age I have been surrounded by it.

Charlie Parker was a genius, as was Lester Young.

I'm an old Coltrane disciple just like I'm a Christian.

What about that Dave Brubeck live album, with a version of 'Like Someone in Love' on it, and long sax solos by Paul Desmond? That's what got me hooked on jazz.

I loved Art Tatum! And, through him, and other different jazz musicians, I actually found my technique.

I love guys like Charlie Parker.

Isaac Smith sounded like Curtis Fuller, Corey Hogan sounded like Sonny Rollins, Terrace Martin sounded like Jackie McLean. Already, at 13, 14, 15 years old.